Shin Cutie Honey

This anime is actually amazing, which surprised me. Basically, it takes every great aspect from the original cutie honey (1973), and then greatly improves every weak aspect of the original.

There's a lot of attention to details, and you'll get most of it if you watched the original (despite all the silliness of original series). Intro song is a remix of original one. Intro sequence is new, but it uses elements from the original. There are similar elements resembling original series here and there, yet everything is greatly improved.

The anime is very similar in structure to the original one - meaning a monster or an enemy, ... followed by a fight, followed by the trademark "cutie honey reveal" scene ("aru toki watush wa....." (list of costumes) "ai no senshi cutie honey sa!"). However, now things are believable and do not look silly. Monsters look convincing. Characters resemble actual people. Background are no longer abstract and make sense. Monsters can be taken seriously. Yet at the same time time it resembles original go nagai works, preserves style, despite looking realistic.

The anime features very high quality 1990s animation, with great animation, properly detailed mechanisms (unlike the original one where vehicles barely had any details on them). Off the top of my head, it was somewhat similar to the first ova series of of "You're under arrest", and sorta resembled "Martian Successor Nadesico". The quality drops a bit in the last episode, but overall it is top notch.
There's also a lot of nudity and fanservice involved, however it is handled properly - in humorous manner and does not feel forced.

Now... details:

Story:
It is fairly simple but believable. There are few overarching long-term arcs, but eventually anime switches to episodic structure. The world is interesting, but not really explained - it is just some cyberpunkish city in the future, and that's a bout it. So overarching story element is not a masterpiece material. However, the story within episode works quite well. There are occasional gruesome death or surprisingly dark elements out of nowhere, but that's in line with go nagai works. Baiscally, in one scene you can see light hearted and somewhat silly material, and in another one people die for real.

Art:
Very high quality 1990s art and animation. Original cutie honey (1973) suffered from that issue where it couldn't properly portray 3d space, kept deforming characters in movement, and monsters had stereotypical "evil villain face". However, in this anime, things are properly hand-drawn, characters and bodies have proper anatomy, at the same time somehow preserving cartoonish faces of certain side characters when necessary. Basically, there were better animes in the art department, but there weren't that many of them. It is on outlaw star/trigun/ martian successor nadesico, pretty much. There's a noticeable drop in quality in some scenes i nthe last episode, but otherwise it is a top notch material.

Sound:
Very nice remix of original intro song. Very nice remix of the remix of the intro song as well. Music is good, and if you watched the original, you'll be pleasantly surprised to hear that they kept the original tune, but reworked it into something much better.

Character:
Better than in the original series. Original characters in 1973 were pretty much embodiment of one idea or one role, but here they actually start resembling people. There's a very small bit of character development going on in some of the side characters, but in general, interactions between them are fairly believable/convincing.

Enjoyment:
It was quite interesting to watch. Definitely not a moment to get bored.

Overall:
Highly recommended. I may have gone overboard rating it as 9, but it is definitely a 8/10 or 9/10 material. You'll enjoy it more if you watched the original series, but this is not strictly necessary. There's fanservice (and nudity), but I'd say it is handled in proper (humorous) way, and not awkward manner present in some modern anime.

So, check it out, if you have the opportunity.

Coming hot off the heels of watching the original 1973 Cutey Honey I had a lot to look forward to. For the most part Shin Cutey Honey delivers a much more solid experience than the original. For those wondering, no, you do not need to watch the original 1973 series to enjoy this show. The original anime doesn't even finish the manga arc that this follows up. Just know a long time ago Cutey Honey beat up some bad guys and good enough.

The animation is fantastic in this show. It really gives a vibe of an early 90s anime or even American cartoon with it's ... dark cities and generally grosser enemies. It's a pretty large, and in my opinion needed, contrast from the 1973 series. I love that Danbei is now this cyborg thing. He still gets knocked around like before, but it shows the progression of his character needing to help Honey.

While the original did slip in small amount of nudity (one or two transformation scenes had nipples shown for some reason), this show opts to have nudity everywhere. Every transformation has nipples. So if this is your type of thing than you'll like it. There is also fan service everywhere, however I never feel it's enough to degrade Cutey as a character. Although it is certainly a lot more than the 1973 series.

The fault I have with this OVA is the story sadly. While the first arc is very involved with lots of progression, the show devolves into a monster of the week show after it. This is what Cutey was known for sure, but I just feel like things could have went better way in such a short anime.

Give it a watch. The Cutey Honey character needs more love. She is fantastic and the show is very solid.

Just finished it, to sum it up, could be the best Cutey Honey anime but it wasn’t.

Shin takes place 100 years after the original manga (ended on a cliffhanger), Honey apparently forgot who she was, which is odd, no one questions it and it is never explained, a new villain appears and an old-known villain too, our heroine needs to stop them, a simple and “solid” plot… Then the problems begin to arise, the pacing. Shin is unfinished, initially it was supposed to have 12 eps and only 8 were made, however, the main plot for it only last for 4 episodes, what would have ... played out better for 12 eps was put into 4, thus it resulted in a very unforgettable, rushed and stale story for the series, which is a shame because it could be so much more, after episode 4 it goes back to your “villain of the week” structure with no real plot and also crossovers, just Honey beating the villains, it is not bad but its nothing different from the others, the anime could do justice to the “Shin” on its name. My other main problem with it is a character that is introduced and his relationship with honey, he’s a kid and barely develops character through the anime, him and Honey barely have known each other and the anime induces you to think they are really good friends because of a few scenes it has shoved down your throat, Honey acts to him like she was his mother and in even worse cases, like a lover, making her look like a shotacon, the major problems end here.

The visuals for Shin are probably the best for me, even so, its not perfect, background art was inconsistent for a while, in the first ep the backgrounds are different from the rest, leaving the feel that it wasn’t in the same city to begin with, afterwards it goes back to being your average city. I enjoyed the animation for the most part, it played really safe and was weird sometimes but when it really wanted to show off, it did well and this surprised me. The soundtrack screams 90’s and if you’re a fan, you’ll definitely enjoy it, Shin’s OP 1 has the best rendition of the Cutey Honey theme song and the OP2 might be the best of the series, visually speaking.

Shin might not be the best because of certain choices, yet, it got close to it. If you enjoy Cutey Honey, want a solid experience and doesn’t mind some inconveniences, this one is for you.